At any rate, I still don't know what happened. One went off feed Saturday morning, but she seemed fine. Sometimes when we have a cold snap and I increase the energy supplement, the younger calves go off feed. It just gets to be too filling and they aren't hungry. As long as they eat something, I'll let them go without treatment for a feeding or two (and if it's not horribly cold). She did the same thing Saturday night, but she was still getting up. Her ears were still perky (sick calves tend to have droopy ears), and her eyes were still bright. Sunday morning she was dead. Sunday morning I had another one start the same thing. She'd get up and eat, but wouldn't finish her milk. I figured I'd wait her out and see how she would do that night. Same thing. So I treated her. She was a little smelly, which is a sign of scours, but her pen was dry and her butt wasn't too messy, but rather than let her go, I gave her some antibiotic and an electrolyte treatment. Pat and his Dad moved her into the warming hut for the night. We have one enclosed pen that we used to use for newborns until they added on to the maternity barn. Pat had to call to find out which calf was sick because she looked perfectly healthy. Monday morning, she was dead. I spent a good chunk of time on the phone with our vet and our nutritionist Monday morning trying to figure out what was going on and how to fix it. Everyone is pretty stumped. They gave me ideas of things to try. Our nutritionist thinks that because of the mild temps, there may be some bugs going around that normally wouldn't appear because of the cold. I'm just hoping I don't have to experiment with anything.
I once read somewhere that when losing an animal stops bugging you, it's time to get out. All of our animals matter. I may not cry about it, but I spend a lot of time thinking about what I could have missed or done differently and what I can do to keep it from happening again. Death is a part of life, but I still don't like it!
No comments:
Post a Comment